FT promotes digital ad chief Jon Slade to MD of B2C operations
The Financial Times has promoted Jon Slade to the role of managing director of business-to-consumer operations.
Slade, who was previously commercial director of digital advertising and insight, will also join the FT board and oversee print and digital B2C marketing, customer services, business development and FT Live – the publisher’s conferences and events arm.
During his time as global ad sales director Slade spearheaded the publisher’s trials of a new method of digital trading – selling blocks of time to advertisers in a bid to tackle part of the industry’s ad viewability issues.
Dominic Good will take over as global advertising sales director, reporting to global commercial director and deputy chief executive Ben Hughes.
Good will lead the development of new ad products for FT.com, as well as its mobile apps, and third-party platforms including Flipboard and Google Newsstand.
FT chief executive John Ridding said: “I am delighted to welcome Jon to the FT Board, where his track record in digital innovation, customer understanding and engagement will play a vital role in shaping our business for the future.
“In his recent position as commercial director for global digital advertising and insight, his innovative work to develop a time-based digital advertising metric has been widely recognised in the industry.”
The FT has made major strides into the wearable tech space, having pinpointed smart watches as an important editorial outlet for its FastFT content.
Previously the publisher’s chief technology officer Jon O'Donovan told The Drum it is looking to rebuild its entire digital portfolio to centre around API integration, as part of its “universal publishing” strategy.